It was two weeks later. I'd followed the tracks to some horse tracks, followed the horse tracks to a town and that's where they went everywhich way. The town was across the border into the lands of the Red Hand, the kind of border group that depends on trade caravans going some place better to scrape together a living for its citizens (so many of those existed back then along trade routes, this particular town has since been wiped out since the Divide went up). Tok was the name if I remember it right. Hardly a town even, just a single line of buildings. A tavern/inn, local law, and a store. At first I thought I hit a dead end until I'd come across a particularly drunk mercenary, he was talking up a local score he'd been involved in. He was more loose lipped then he should have been and not careful of where his drink had been (and I still had some powder from poisoning the merchant). So a couple bought drinks later and he was on the back of my horse as I rode back to the guild's former location (law wouldn't look for me there, no one would honestly, back then things burned down and people were murdered all the time, no one cared, its not too much different now to tell you the truth).
I had the Merc tied down on a table in the center of the smoking ruins. I let the powder wear off and he much like the merchant before attempted to fight the ropes (One skill I always appreciated learning was how to tie knots it comes in handy so much). I stood there silently, I hadn't bound his eyes (always a bad sign if you wake up and you can see the person, they intend on killing you well except for me with the merchant because I was an idiot), he cursed at me recognizing me as the person who fed him drinks.
"I won't talk you bastard, you can do whatever you want to me I won't talk!" Everyone always says this, its false bravado, you'll talk everyone talks, the idea you can hold out against torture is impossible. Now what you say might be insane gibberish, out right lies, or anything inbetween but you'll talk.
"See you're under the mistaken impression I'm here for information, I'm not, this is purely about vengeance." Eyes went wider now, realizing the reality of the situation does that to people.
"What do you want to know?" Didn't even take that long.
"How long till you stop screaming from the pain honestly, this is my first time at this so I'm sure there will be mistakes, I'm sure by the time I get to the end of this I'll be able to extend it for a long period of time." I had drawn my sword now, his screaming was frantic and pleading. I started on his left leg, sliced it off just above the knee, I then heated my sword up to stop the bleeding (a technique I'd previously heard about from Sal when she visited a local doctor, not that they used magical fire, but still). He started screaming out names at this point, bargaining anything to get me to stop. I'll spare the more gory details, but he died about an hour in. I burned the table with his remains on them, it wouldn't look out place to anyone who came across the scene of murder anyway.
I was honest in my stance, I didn't actually want information, but I had aquired some. The merc didn't know who had hired them or why, just told them to get Corli and Sal specifically (I was not amongst their people to kill which was the biggest clue of all, only one person knew I'd not be there for the attack). I didn't really remember the woman's face who had come looking for her husband, but I'd find her, I had the names of others who had been hired here and I'd find them too. Killing the merc, hadn't slated my lust for killing, hadn't even scratched the itch. I know now I was being lead down a path, tainted as it were, but back then it just felt good to get revenge.
That's the thing with being corrupted, up until the point of no return, it just feels right. Then when you look back on it all, you see how stupid and careless you were being. I'm lucky to still be who I am, you know a necromancer who has murdered people to keep alive... Ok so maybe I'm still partially corrupted, but I do nice things! Like the other day I helped an old lady find something! I won't get into how much I charged for this, but it still counts!
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